High and Mighty School
by Tatsukage
Summary: A bunch of kids go to a strange boarding school and become fantasy characters. I only own Lycanus since he's based off of me. Fierce Deity and all other well known characters are property of their respective owners. I won't say it again, so don't bug me.
1. Prologue

_Prologue_

My first day at a new school. They had said that it wouldn't be like any school I had been to before, so I didn't know what to expect. There wasn't an open house or a meet the teachers or anything like that. My name's Lycanus Wolfbane, and I'm seventeen years old. I stood outside of the old castle that was my new school and home. There were forty of us in total, and they had us all lined up from oldest to youngest, with me in the very back.

They said we were to choose one weapon off of a table when we walked into the main courtyard just inside the main gate, and outside the actual castle, going one at a time, so I got to go last. Some people chose swords, some guns, others got strange weapons I had never seen before. When it was my turn, there was only one weapon left. I stared at it. It was a mask. It was a human warrior's face with tribal tattoos and platinum blonde hair and hollow white eyes without pupils. So guess what? I 'chose' the mask.

We all took our seats with our respective weapons as six men walked onto the stage. The first was about average height, with very pale skin and serpentine teal eyes and platinum blonde hair going down his back to his waist. At his hip was a nodachi three meters long. He wore leather pants, thick boots and gloves, and a leather trench coat. And it was all black. He had no shirt, but instead had straps crossing his chest to keep his coat half-way closed.

Behind him was what appeared to be a boy my age. He was much shorter than the first, with spiky blonde hair that stuck out in all directions and vivid blue eyes. Like the man before him, all of his clothes were black and leather except for his shirt, which, like his jacket, was missing its right sleeve. There was a strange wolf pendant on his left shoulder that matched his necklace. But the thing that grabbed my attention most was the massive fullblade on his back. The sword was six feet long and one foot wide. It seemed to be made of six different blades and it caused me to wonder how he was even able to hold it.

Next came a man that towered over the others. He stood at what looked like seven feet even and carried a multitude of guns. Covered from head to toe in sage green armor, he looked like some kind of tank. I couldn't see through his orange visor, but it felt as though he was looking right at me.

Man number four was taller than the first, but shorter than the third. He had flaming red hair and beard, and skin the same color as the third man's armor. He had full plate armor on that was the same color as obsidian, with intricate gold designs. He truly was built like a tank, being larger than even the guy in green armor. At his hip was a white longsword with an elaborate hilt, and it seemed to have an unearthly glow.

The fifth man couldn't have been much older than twenty, and wore a faded green shirt and a matching pointy hat that drooped down behind him. He had brown leather gauntlets, belt and boots, and white cloth pants. There was a chain shirt beneath his green one, and he wore a wrist guard on his left hand. He had dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes that had the glint of some wild beast behind them. On his back were a longsword and a shield.

The last man stood just as tall as the third, but was wearing clothing that made him look like a samurai from Japan's Edo Era. He had midnight black hair that was formed into long spikes; each one having a small bell on the end. He had an eye-patch over his right eye, and a dark jagged scar going down the left side of his face and crossing over his good eye. He also had a nodachi at his hip, but it was nowhere near the length of the first guys. The blade was about six feet long and blunted and jagged from years of constant fighting. He seemed to eye us briefly with disinterest with his good eye and muttered something under his breath.

The first man stepped forward and addressed us. "Welcome one and all," he said with a warm smile. "You have all been chosen because you had certain traits or abilities that we deemed worthy of this schools attention. Will those of you without a gun please stand up." We did as instructed not understanding where he was going with this. "Equip your weapons." Equip my weapon? But it was a mask! How do you equip a mask? Everybody else seemed to be having an easier time of it than I was and they all strapped on harnesses and sheathes and finished in quick order.

"Put your damn mask on." I looked up and saw that the final man was staring at me with his good eye. It felt like some god was trying to squash me under their thumb.

I flipped the mask over. It had no eyeholes, and there were no strings to tie or a band to hold it in place. "Here goes nothing." I took a deep breath and put the mask to my face and my whole body was wracked with pain. It was as if my insides were turning inside out and the mask burned like it was eating away at my face. I felt a sudden shove as I let out a tortured scream and lightning struck me from the sky and the pain subsided. I opened my eyes and took in my surroundings. I was still in the courtyard, and I was now several feet away from everybody. The first man was walking away.

'_Was it him? Did he shove me?'_ I looked around, noticing that everything was now much shorter, and my classmates now regarded me with a mixture of fear and awe. I looked at myself. I was huge! I was nine feet tall and wearing some weird cuirass and pauldrons. I had a white shirt beneath the cuirass, and I had a white hat like the one the fifth guy was wearing. I was wearing some weird black bodysuit beneath my armor and I had thick brown gauntlets and boots. As I looked around, I noticed mine wasn't the only transformation, but it was by far the flashiest. As I looked back on stage, I could see the final man staring at me with a grin from ear to ear, his eye practically dripping with bloodlust.

"Now that that is over," continued the first man, "welcome to the school. Believe it or not, each of you could have gotten nothing else but the weapon you chose. I am your lead instructor, Sephiroth." He began walking down the row of instructors. "With me are Cloud Strife, Master Chief SPARTAN John-117, Ganondorf Dragmire, Link, and Captain Zaraki Kenpachi. Your schooling will continue until you have mastered your gifts, all the while continuing on with your normal studies. We have all standard and advanced classes that a normal high school would, and replaced all electives with classes that will benefit your abilities. If you will follow us, we will show you to your dorm rooms."

There was no orderly line this time, just a big crowd of kids following a bunch of guys that were introducing us to stuff we had never seen before. I finally got to my room, along with the oldest and second oldest of our group, and the girl in the middle of the age group. The oldest one had gotten a gun that attached to her right arm, and sprouted a whole suit of dark orange armor. The second oldest had snagged himself what had looked like a simple vial that had a note telling him to drink it. He did, and he didn't feel any different yet. The other girl had gotten a similar vial, and her skin seemed to be turning a grayish-green.

We went to our respective sides of our rooms, and found that they had indeed been preparing for us specifically. My things were sized to my new body. My roommate, whose name turned out to be Lucian, had more normal-sized things, but they were still larger than normal. The older girl, who was named Samus, had more of a hi-tech stasis bed like something out of a sci-fi flick, with everything to match. The other girl, Sarah, had some weird alien pod to sleep in, and the rest of her things were likewise made of some weird, organic alien matter.

After exploring our sides of the rooms, we returned to the main living quarters of our dorm, once again, discovering a chair for each of us and introduced ourselves. And that's were I am now. "My name is Lycanus Wolfbane." I heard a faint voice in the back of my head, similar to my own, but still slightly different. _'And I am the Fierce Deity,'_ it added.


	2. Chapter 1: The Swing of Things

**Chapter I**

I woke up the first morning to find a schedule on my dresser, as well as a school uniform. Slacks, white shirt with the school's insignia, and all the books and supplies I would need. They said we could wear whatever we wanted for footwear, so I stuck with my new boots. That was fine. Then it started to go downhill.

As I walked through the hallways of the castle, I came to my first class of the day: P.E. The teachers were Captain Kenpachi and Master Chief. I changed into my sweats and lined up on the wall with the others. Both were still dressed the same as yesterday and neither seemed too eager to be there. That is until Captain Kenpachi saw that he had me in his first class, and then he couldn't wait to begin. Just my luck to be teacher's pet without trying…

Kenpachi glared down (or up in my case) at all of us. "First we'll have you run until you pass out," he said. He drew his nodachi and swung it in the direction of the door. "You little scumbags will be running laps around the castle until you drop. Every day you have one class. Monday through Friday you'll have you're basics, and then Saturday you'll have a few of our specialized classes." He sung again, this time over our heads. "Get moving!"

We were out the door. Me and Samus had all of the same classes, so we stuck together for the most part. Michael and me had the same first three classes, and me and Sarah had the first, fourth and fifth classes together. They didn't give us schedules for Saturday, so that was anybody's guess. Samus and I still hadn't figured out how to remove our armor, so we wore our uniform over our clothes. It looked strange to see a rust orange robot in a knee-length skirt and white polo shirt. I can't imagine I looked any better though.

We began running around the building, and about halfway through the first lap, Samus took off like a thunderbolt ahead of everybody else. She lapped us ten times and was a good way through the eleventh when she just stopped running. Probably one of her suit's abilities. She dropped like a rock in front of us, and I picked her up, and carried her bridal-style back to the starting line. Master Chief quickly wove through the students, matched my pace, and took her from me to take her to the sidelines. I wondered what kind of training he had undergone…

Michael, Sarah and I pretty much kept a steady pace together until about three hours later, Sarah dropped out. Michael and I were able to speed up a little, but not much since I was already close to my max. About two hours after we lost Sarah, I lost Michael to fatigue. Most of the other student's had dropped out by this point, so it was just me and a few others. I kept running at my max speed, and watched as my fellow classmates slowly dropped out. I ran through lunch, then dinner, and into the night. Kenpachi had his assistant join me. She was a little girl about a foot and a half tall named Yachiru. She rode on my shoulder, her endless energy and optimism a welcome exchange for Kenpachi's perpetual anger.

I kept running through the night and into the morning when Master Chief came out to join me briefly. During this time, he switched Kenpachi's assistant with his. She was an eight inch tall holographic blue woman. While Miss Yachiru had endless enthusiasm, Cortana had endless sarcasm. She rode on my shoulder much like Yachiru, but her holoprojector had a magnetic clamp and was attached to my pauldron. She had an endless supply of information, most of it being corrections in my running form. My running was pushed into the next class's, and I sprinted long after most of the were done. There was one in the group that did catch my interest though.

There was another guy in this particular class that had long blue hair formed into spikes much like Kenpachi's who called himself Sonny. He told me that it wasn't his real name and said that he wouldn't say what it was. He was wearing his weapon; a pair of red and white sneakers. He had said that they gave him superspeed, and when I didn't believe him, he sped off and lapped me in about five seconds. Faster than Samus and able to control his speed better. That was cool. He joined us until that night, then passed out sometime after midnight. Dawn of the third day; I still wasn't tired and Wednesday's class was starting. Nobody of mention here except a kid with red hair and combat boots by the name of McCloud. He was short and had a fox's ears and tail, along with some rather surprising speed. He lasted to about dinner-time, and then dropped like a bushy-tailed rock.

Once again I ran through the night, and into the morning. Master Chief came a little after sunrise and relieved me of Cortana saying I was to go to my next class. I went back inside the castle to change and looked at my schedule. My next class was science. Teacher: Sephiroth. I walked in with Samus and Sarah and we took our seats near the front.

"Welcome to your fourth class. You should remember me from the indoctrination. But my assistant here you have not met." He motioned to a man that looked like he could have been Sephiroth as a teenager. "This is Kadaj. If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask us." He looked around the room waiting for a response. Samus, Sarah and I were joined by another boy a little older than myself. He had liquid paper white skin and obsidian black hair that came down to his waist. If I thought that Sephiroth's eyes looked serpentine, than this guy's eyes must have been pulled straight from a snake's head. He slowly rose his hand. For whatever reason, his weapon, the Sword of Kusanagi, was nowhere in sight, even though we were supposed to keep them on us at all times.

"Yes, Orochimaru?" Sephiroth answered quietly.

"Exactly what kind science will we be learning?" His voice was deep, yet soft, and it almost came out in a hiss. As big as I was, there was still some deep, primal fear of him in some dark corner of my mind.

"There will be no boundaries in my class for the most part, but I will let you know when you are about to cross them. The type of science will vary from day to day, but it will continuously build off the previous day's lessons." This seemed to satisfy Orochimaru, so Sephiroth continued. "First we will be discussing chemistry." He turned to the blackboard to begin writing down equations. I cast a glance in Orochimaru's direction to see him staring intently at the board. If he wanted to play mad scientist with the teacher then that was fine by me. As I looked at the board, I saw he was not using just one type of science, but many. Chemistry I was kinda familiar with, and I was pretty good with geology and astronomy, but once he started going into genetics, biology and astrophysics, I was lost. I understood the word 'lifestream', but I wasn't sure if it was important or not, so I stared at the board, not comprehending much of anything. "We will be covering all of these topics over your time here, so you don't have to worry if there's something you don't understand."

I heard a collective sigh of relief from everybody in the room and watched as he erased everything but the chemistry. I could barely watch as my brain began sizzling in response to all the things he was talking about. It had been way too long since I had done this last. A few hours later, we were released for lunch. At this point I was just happy to get away from Sephiroth and Orochimaru. I didn't know why, but that kid was just too creepy for me. Samus, Sarah, and I ate lunch together, and were soon joined by Michael. He, like Sarah, McCloud and a few others, was going through some changes. He didn't sleep anymore, and he said no matter what he ate, he always felt weak.

Sarah on the other hand, had changed physically more than anything. Her hair was slowly falling out and these weird spines grew out from where it used to be, much to her dismay. She also had these bone-like wings growing from her back. I think she might be breaking down mentally though. She's been hearing voices that sound like ours and she said that she can hear our thoughts. It sounded crazy, but I decided to be careful just in case not think too much while I was around her.

Lunch was uneventful, with the exception of McCloud and a kid named Altair almost got into a fight since McCloud was starting to grow fur all over his body and he was shedding all over Altair. It would have been ugly if Sonic hadn't stepped in He broke it up rather smoothly, and the rest of lunch went smoothly. I noticed Orochimaru was sitting next to two more kids; a blonde girl named Tsunade, and a white-haired guy obsessed with Tsunade's _extremely_ ample chest named Jiraiya. Well, O.K., so it wasn't just Tsunade's chest, it was her whole body and every attractive girl in the lunchroom. She was just closer than the others and her chest was the most apparent thing about her.

Sarah, Samus and I returned to science class for another four and a half hours of Sephiroth's brain-frying chemistry lesson. The books made things a little easier to understand, so I wasn't completely in the dark. Despite being bored out of my mind, I was able to keep awake the whole time. He released us for the day at dinnertime, our only homework being to study what he had taught us. Dinner went by much more smoothly than lunch. I had invited McCloud to sit with us so we had a good talk with him. Come to find out he wanted to be a fighter pilot like his father. His dad was killed when one of his teammates shot him down during Desert Storm and went the way of Benedict Arnold.

After dinner, I went around to my other two classes, Language Arts and Social Studies. Language Arts was taught by Link and his assistant Midna, while Social Studies was taught by Ganondorf and his assistant Nabooru. Midna, a short black and pale-green skinned woman with flaming red hair and a strange stone helmet that covered one of her eyes, said that Link was out, but she would be happy to give me the make-up work. She had a coy, mischievous smile that hinted there was something she wouldn't tell me, but I ignored it. She snapped her fingers and a list appeared in midair in front of my face. "Just make sure to have it done before Tuesday."

I walked across the hallway to Ganondorf's Social Studies classroom. For the first time, I noticed that the doors and hallways were massive, almost big enough for a guy three times my height to walk through. I knocked on the thick wooden door and I heard a deep voice booming through it. "Enter!"

'_If you dare,'_ I thought with a momentary smirk. "Sir, I'm here to pick up my-"

"Make-up work?" He almost seemed amused by the idea. He was on the far side of the room, staring out a window with his arms folded behind is back. He, like Midna, snapped his fingers. Loud, heavy footsteps on the stone floor drew my attention away from Ganondorf. A guy in a heavy suit of armor my height, but with Ganondorf's build marched slowly towards me. "I've been expecting you, Lycanus. My assistant Nabooru will take care of you."

I looked at the massive ax on his back. _'I'll bet,'_ I though with a gulp. Nabooru gave me book and a list of chapters to study. He was completely silent, and the empty gaze from the eyeholes in his helmet seemed to bore into my soul. I turned around, noticing that there were ten suits of armor just like Nabooru's lining the walls. When I turned to thank Nabooru, he was already backing against one wall in place with the other suits.

"Is there something else?" Ganondorf asked irritatedly.

I tore my gaze from Nabooru to Ganondorf, not sure why I was so afraid all of a sudden. "No, sir."

"Then leave me," he commanded, waving one hand toward the door. In my opinion, I couldn't have gotten out of that room fast enough.

That voice from before chimed up in the back of my head. _'Why were you so afraid? You could have taken him on. If you are to survive, you are to fear no one.'_ The voice seemed to thunder in my head. _'When you master your power, no one will be able to stop you.'_ The voice talked like Kenpachi using my voice. It was unnerving, yet comforting that part of me thought I was good to fight somebody that powerful.

I looked at the list Ganondorf had given me. He didn't seem like he was much for history, but he gave us enough homework to seem like it. When I got back to my room, I immediately took off my uniform and set to work trying to take off my armor. Hat and gauntlets were fine, but the cuirass was another story. Now that I had some extra time to examine it closely, I saw two small latches on one shoulder, and two more on my right side. Once those were undone, it popped right off and I placed it with the hat and gauntlets on a stand that had been provided for my armor. I opened a box next to my bed and found that they had even prepared for normal life. There were a few pairs of jeans and some t-shirts. I slid those on along with my boots and joined my roommates in the main living area.

"That's your seat," Michael said pointing to the bulkier, more reinforced end of the couch. "Where have you been?"

I plopped down on the couch, feigning exhaustion. "Getting homework. I did miss two days of class."

"Is it my fault you can run forever like some kind of video game character?"

"No, but I'll blame you for it all the same." I looked over to where Samus normally sat. In her place was an attractive young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a light blue skintight bodysuit and had her hair in a ponytail. "Who's the new girl?" I asked.

"Samus," Michael casually replied.

"Finally got your armor off?" I asked trying to hide my embarrassment. Only the tribal tattoos on my cheeks kept it hidden.

"Yes. This was underneath it." She motioned along her body, indicating the bodysuit. "When I took off my armor, I went from an arm cannon, to this stun pistol." She held it up for all to see, and then holstered it.

"At least you still have a weapon. It doesn't matter if I've got my armor on or not. The only weapons I have are my bare hands. I'm not sure how I'll stand up to a laser or a bullet."

"We could always find out."

"That's more than fine. I'll be good." I suddenly regretted taking off my armor. "What's on?" I said trying to divert attention to the TV.

"Not much. There's a couple of old horror flicks and some cheesy cartoons from the fifties and sixties."

"I'll pass." I went back to my room and drug out Ganondorf's homework. It was surprisingly easy. That was made up for by the amount of homework he had assigned. About nine thirty, I heard a crash from the front room. I rushed out to see Samus in a defensive stance, pistol pointed at the shattered window. "What happened?"

"It's Michael," Samus said evenly. "He changed into some kind of monster."


	3. Chapter 2: Offers

**Chapter II**

Samus and I quickly ran back to our rooms to put our armor back on. As soon as that was done, we followed Michael's path out the window and to wherever he was going. It wasn't that hard. All we had to do was follow the clawed footprints and listen to the screams. He was still on campus grounds, but not for long if we didn't hurry. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of something moving in the shadows. We stopped, not knowing what to expect. Out of, what else, a dark alleyway, stalked what looked like a massive werewolf. "What is that thing?"

"It's Michael," Samus said leveling her arm canon at him.

"What are you doing!?!"

"Ice Beam." She fired a few shots at him, encasing his hands in ice. "Try and hold him down: I won't get a stationary target again."

I charged forward and tackled him while he was still stunned, but his strength was astounding. He tried pushing me back, but I was both bigger and stronger than him. For whatever reason, I had more combat experience than him, even though I've never been in a fight in my life. Whenever he tried anything, I automatically knew the counter for it, and he was slowly frozen over. When all that was left was his head, I finally let go of him. "What now?" I asked, staring at the snarling, shivering beast.

There was a loud crack and a dart whistled by my ear and nailed Michael in the neck. He went limp and reverted back to human form. We turned to the direction the dart came from, and standing on a parapet of the castle was a man that looked like Kadaj, but his weapon was different. It looked like a sword that had been formed around a gun, with the barrel still smoking. He ducked into the shadows before when he realized that Samus and I had already seen him. "Who was that?" she said as she began to thaw out Michael with her Plasma Beam.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out." I waited until she had finished thawing Michael and I picked him up and carried him back to our room. I laid him down on the couch and stormed out of the room, slamming the heavy door behind me.

Samus ran up to me, keeping pace beside me. "If your going where I think your going, you'll need my help." She set a large messenger bag on the ground and started curling up, turning into something the size of a basketball. "Keep me hidden in the bag until you need me. I'm not about to let you go get yourself killed by yourself."

I held the bag open and she rolled in. I slung the bag over my shoulders and ran through the passageways, nearly running over half my classmates on the way. I finally arrived at Sephiroth's room, and kicked the door in. I was greeted by Kadaj, the man from earlier, and a larger one with a buzz cut hairdo and some a strange gauntlet. "So I was right. It wasn't Kadaj." I glared at the smaller man with hate. Although I had only known Michael for a short time, we were already close and not knowing what he was capable of yet, felt very protective of him. "What did you do to him?"

"Allow me to introduce you to my brothers," Kadaj said, ignoring my question. "This is Yazoo." He motioned to the larger one. "And this is Loz."

"What did you do to him?" I repeated.

"I made sure he wouldn't transform into a werewolf just yet," Yazoo replied nonchalantly. "As a matter of fact, I gave him a wonderful gift. You see, one of the people who were supposed to be here couldn't make it, so we decided to give him both weapons."

"What do you mean?"

"Your friend now has two viruses coursing through his veins. The first he chose on his own. The second, I injected after you subdued him along with an enzyme that prevented him from changing at the light of a full moon."

"And you did all this without telling him?"

"Of course. He never would have agreed to it otherwise."

I grabbed him by the collar of his leather shirt and pulled him up to my eye level. "I'll break you in two," I growled through clenched teeth. I dropped him suddenly as pain shot through my right leg. Loz was there with his strange gauntlet after he had just jabbed my thigh with it.

"We won't give you that chance," Loz said as they bum rushed me. All three of them charged forward, hitting me from every direction. Once they forced me out into the hallway, they spread out to surround me.

The problem with that was I was no longer unarmed. I took off the messenger bag and twirled it around like a morning star, waiting for the first one to get too close. Yazoo charged forward, swinging his gunblade at me. I let it hit my thick breastplate brought Samus into contact with his side. She was heavy, I was strong, and now Yazoo had some broken ribs. I straight kicked him away from me, only to be jabbed in the back by Loz. I almost let go of the messenger bag, but I maintained my grip this time and brought it around to smash Loz into the ground. He dodged it easily, and slammed into my right leg again. I dropped to one knee and could do nothing in time as Kadaj ran his double katana through the gouge in my breastplate and into my stomach. The three of them walked away, leaving me to die. I couldn't let it end like this. I reached up with my free hand and grabbed the sword, and slowly pulled it out.

I stood up, ignoring the pain, and let Samus roll out of the messenger bag. She transformed in midair, landing with her blaster pointed at the three. When the sword finally did come out, it changed. The blades changed color and lengthened. One was green, the other yellow. The crossed once as they lengthened, then met at the top, forming a single strange sword. Somehow, I automatically knew what it was. "The Double Helix," I said as I watched Kadaj's sword turn into my own. When it was done, the blade was as long as I was tall, and the hilt added another foot of length.

As I focused on the three, bits of bluish-white energy began rising off of the blade. I gripped the hilt with both hands and gave it a test swing in the massive hallway, and sent a wave of bluish-white energy at their backs. It collided with them, and their bodies glowed briefly, and then dropped limply to the ground. "Thundara." A bolt of lightning flew by me and nailed Samus, sending her forward and into an unconscious heap. I wheeled around to find myself face to face with Sephiroth. "What's going on here?" he asked calmly.

"Now? Nothing. I picked a fight with them and won. They did something to-"

"-Michael on my orders. There's nothing you really can do about it anymore. Just leave it be."

I gripped the hilt of the Double Helix even tighter. "Not on your life."

"So be it. Before you return to your room tonight, just know that nobody will believe you when you say that I was in on this. Your only reliable witness is unconscious, and there's nobody else around to see." He held out his palm out to me, fingers extended. "Shall I give you despair?" He locked his elbow and glared at me. "Meteor." The last thing I remember is a devastating explosion.

_The next day…_

I woke up the next morning in my bed. I felt my stomach, only to find that the stab wound had vanished. My armor was on its stand, along with the Double Helix. I got dressed for that day's class, pondering the last night's events. I practically destroyed Sephiroth's assistants, and then Samus and I got destroyed by Sephiroth. I now had a sword of my own, and Kadaj undoubtedly had a replacement to validate the lie that nothing had happened last night. I got dressed in my armor and uniform and picked up the Double Helix to head off to my next class, Math. It was taught by Cloud, so at least I could avoid Sephiroth and his goons for the day.

I walked through the halls with Samus and Sarah, looking for the room Cloud taught in. We finally found it, right across from Sephiroth's room. Maybe I wouldn't go one day without seeing Sephiroth.

We filed into the room, looking for our seats. Mine was in the very back of the class along with a guy named Ridley, who had been turning in to a huge purple dragon. I was now officially the second largest guy in school. I jabbed the Double Helix into the stonework next to my desk and took my seat. Samus was in the row ahead of us next to Sarah, so the four of us made a nice square of people with oversized features. We watched as Cloud walked into the room, seemingly unaffected by the huge sword on his back. He glanced around the room, taking us all in.

Shortly after him came a tall kid with orange hair. He, like me and Cloud, had an oversized sword. His was half black and half white, the white half going along the edge of the blade. It had no handguard, and resembled a large meat cleaver. The hilt was wrapped in what looked like a bandage with part of the bandage coming off the end like a tail. He also jabbed it into the stonework next to his desk and sat down. When all of the students arrived, Cloud took a piece of chalk and began writing equations on the board.

I hated math. This was compounded when he used math that I already knew how to use and hated passionately. Ridley and Sarah seemed disinterested and Samus had her helmet on so she could scan the board and take notes. The orange-haired kid jotted down a few quick notes every now and then, but for the most part, he was like Ridley and Sarah. I paid attention just enough to make sure that I remembered it all properly, and the rest of the time I prayed the lunch bell would ring. It rang around eleven, and we all hurried out.

In the lunchroom, our growing group moved to a larger table, so now it was me, Samus, Michael, Sarah, McCloud (who we had dubbed 'Fox'), Sonny (who had turned into a three and a half foot tall hedgehog-looking thing and was now going by his real name of 'Sonic'), and the orange-haired kid whose name was Ichigo. His dad was a doctor, and they had this small, family-owned clinic that doubled as their home. He had two sisters, Karin and Yuzu who were both several years younger than him.

Sonic on the other hand, traveled around a lot. The closest thing to family he had was his Uncle Chuck, and a kid they had sort of adopted unofficially as his little brother named Miles. He was home schooled, so this kind of school was a bit of a shock to him. Nothing was ever fast enough for him, not even himself. Even with his superspeed, he was still pushing himself to go faster than he had before.

Our table had become quite the menagerie. You had me: an ogre or an oni, you had Sonic: a hedgehog, McCloud: a fox, Michael: a hybrid werewolf/vampire, and Sarah: a weird alien/angel-looking thing. The last two human-like people in our group were Samus and Ichigo. We sat there joking around when there was a large commotion from the far side of the cafeteria. I stood up and saw Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru engaging in a slugfest. Orochimaru had done something to tick off the other two bad enough to make them beat him into the dirt. I walked over to the ring of other students surrounding them, and with the exception of Ridley, everybody parted as I walked forward.

I brought the Double Helix in between the two sides of the fight and stood between them. I was nowhere near as fast as them, and Tsunade may have been as strong as me, but the Double Helix was a weapon that not even Orochimaru wanted to be on the wrong side of. Before I could ask what was going on, Orochimaru took this time to make his escape. He leapt over my shoulder, pulling a few strands of hair from my head in the process. By the time I turned around, he was gone. "That was strange." I hefted the Double Helix back up and rested the blade on one shoulder. "What was that about?"

Tsunade and Jiraiya shook their heads. 'That's between us and him. We would rather nobody else got involved." I was slightly disappointed at Tsunade's words. That meant I wasn't able to fight anybody. I didn't know why I felt that way, I just did.

"Oh. O.K." I returned to my table and finished my lunch, dreading returning to Cloud's class. Three hours of brain-frying math later, we were released from torture to go to dinner. Dinner was much less entertaining to say the least. For the most part, we ate silence. Everybody was exhausted after the day's work, and all we wanted to do was go to bed. When we were done, we all went our separate ways. I went to my room and began to empty my pockets and found a piece of paper I hadn't put there.

'_Meet me at the main courtyard at 11:30 PM. You won't be sorry.'_

It was enough to warrant some investigation, so I waited until 10:45. I headed down to the courtyard and got there around eleven, hiding in the shadows to wait for whoever set up the meeting.

Shortly after I got there, Orochimaru showed up along with Ridley and Sephiroth and his assistants. Ganondorf and Nabooru followed a few minutes later, as did Sarah. I emerged from the shadows, and saw Kadaj and his brothers flinch slightly at the sight of me. At least some of them were intimidated by me. They, at least, remembered what had happened the night before.

I quickly assessed everybody in the courtyard. Kadaj and his brothers were easily dealt with, and as long as I kept out of range of Sephiroth's spells, I should be O.K. Sarah wasn't much for hand-to-hand combat, but she was developing some frightening mental abilities. Ganondorf was big, and his movements were slow, but he would destroy you if you got hit even once. His assistant was bigger and slower, but same story nonetheless. Ridley was at least twice my size now and getting bigger everyday, but he wasn't used to his new body yet, and he was still clumsy. Orochimaru was small, quick, and agile as hell. God only knew how hard it was going to be to hit him with the Double Helix.

Me, I had decent speed, and with the exception of Ganondorf, Nabooru, and Tsunade, my strength was unmatched in the school. I hadn't had time yet to fully master the Double Helix, so no way in hell was I going to get into a swordfight with anybody just yet. I stood a reasonable chance of getting out alive, but unscathed was not an option. I just had to hope I didn't need to fight anybody here. I looked around again and cut to the chase. "Who summoned me here and why?"

"That would be me," Ganondorf answered. "Just like I summoned all of you. We all have something in common: the darkness in our hearts or our stained souls. Some may be more apparent than others, but we cannot deny our true nature. I propose we unite as one. Only we are fit to rule, and none would be able to stand against us should we try to conquer the planet." This was insane. The ten of us versus the world? It wasn't possible. There were nods of approval anyways, so he continued. "I have called everybody here for a purpose. Sephiroth and I shall be overall in charge. Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, and Orochimaru will be used for stealth and subterfuge. Lycanus, Ridley and Nabooru will be our muscle. And finally, Sarah will be our controller. She will silence voices of dissent and turn armies to our cause. I will give you all forty-eight hours to decide." He turned around and walked out, Nabooru stomping heavily behind him.

I went back to my room and took off my armor and hung it and the Double Helix on their respective stands. I had a lot to think about as I drifted off into a restless sleep.


	4. Chapter 3: A New Partner

**Chapter III**

I woke up with a start, hearing a squeaking sound that should not be there. Michael never slept, so he was out doing whatever it was a hybrid werewolf/vampire did. I sat up in my bed and looked in the direction of the sound. Sitting on the chair across the room from my bed was Cloud and a guy that I hadn't seen before was standing next to him. "Can I help you?" I asked groggily.

"Possibly. You know me," Cloud said. "This is one of your fellow students, Vincent Valentine. We know a bit more about you than Ganondorf does. He assumes you to be evil, but we know better. We know that it's your powers that are dark and not you yourself."

"Nothing I didn't already know, but thanks for the heads up." It wasn't much later than three in the morning and guys really had caught me at a bad time.

Vincent spoke up this time. "We want you to accept both our offer, and Ganondorf's."

I stared at Vincent like he had lost his mind. "What offer would that be?"

"We represent a group that has been around for a while longer than the school," Cloud said. "We knew someone would try to do something like this; it was just a matter of finding out who. Now that we know, we want you to join both our group, and Ganondorf's as well. We want you to be our mole, frustrating their efforts at every turn and feeding us information so that his dreams never come to fruition."

"I'd love to help you guys out, but in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not built for that whole stealthy ninja-type stuff. With this mask, I'm suited for nothing other than fighting."

"Then we'll teach you. Besides, it will be more like a 'James Bond' thing where you attempt to sneak and if that fails you break everybody in sight. At least think about it." The two of them jumped out of the window to leave me to my own devices.

First somebody asked me to help take over the world, and then somebody asked me to help them stop the first guy. Since when was I so popular? There were some clearly drawn lines at this school that went beyond any social clique. I had wanted to think about it more, but I was just too tired. I pulled my blanket over my head and quickly fell back asleep.

Four hours later my alarm rang, ripping me from whatever dream I had been having. This day was still one class, but most of us would be going to two of the six teachers. My class for the day, was none other than Ganondorf. He was to teach me and six others hand-to-hand combat and we were paired up based on strength. He lined us up and had each of us punch his hand. He looked disgusted with four of us, and he looked amused with two of us. I actually hurt his hand.

I was matched with the only person there who could come close to my strength; himself. We looked uncertainly at each other, and I knew we were both wondering the same thing. _'Am I going to cripple him?'_ For whatever reason, this soothed my nerves a bit since we were both confident in our abilities.

"I want you to spar with your partner," he said. "Channel your anger into your fists, but do not let it consume you. Give it control of your body, but not your mind. Act on instinct, but still be aware of your surroundings. Begin."

Ganondorf charged at me with all the grace of a bull, but his blows had the strength of atomic bombs behind them. I did as he had said and put what little anger I had into the fight. I saw an opening in his stance and started swinging my foot, but then saw that it was there on purpose. I instead swung down and hooked the back of his knee, then pulled as hard as I could. It caught him off guard, and I aimed a punch of my own at his chest. The gauntlet kept me from cracking my knuckles on his breastplate, but it hurt none the less. For whatever reason, the pain tapped into something. I felt hatred I didn't even know I had before, stemming from rivals and opponents I had never even seen. It was overwhelming, and I could barely control it.

I paused for a split second to reinforce my control, but that was too long. He charged this strange black aura into his fist and punched me in the stomach, causing me to double over than strait kicked me in the chest. As I pulled myself up off the ground, he regarded me in silence. "Why did you hesitate? Why did you turn away from your anger?"

"It was too much. I couldn't control it," I managed to say between gasps for air.

"Anger is the source of your power. Until you master it you will always be weak." He turned to leave and watch the other students. I was confused. Was class over for me, or was this a test? If it was a test, it wasn't one I was going to fail. I pulled myself to my feet and lunged at him, aiming for his waist. I wasn't going for any particular fighting style, I was just aiming to hurt him now. He quickly sidestepped and brought his forearm down on my back, knocking me to the ground for the second time that day. "You have strength yes, and determination. You have within you a hatred that burns almost as brightly as my own. But, you are not meant for hand-to-hand, and as such, there is nothing I can teach you. You may have some skill with grappling, but a punch isn't your style. I will have you transferred to a different class before next Saturday. You may leave now." I picked myself up off the ground again and dusted myself off. "Do not forget my offer," Ganondorf whispered as he walked away.

It was only 8:10 and I had already gotten kicked out of my first class. I wandered the hallways of the castle, not really paying any attention to where I was going. I heard a howl come from one hall, and found myself going down a stairway. Wandering the halls on the lower levels was new to me, and there were few lights down there. When I had just about given up on the sound that had drawn me down there, I heard it again. I pushed open a heavy door and ducked under a normal-sized doorway into what looked like a lab.

I ducked behind a large console and peeked out from behind it when I saw there was somebody in there. An old man in a white lab coat stood next to a large cage. There was a red, black and white dinosaur-looking creature in it and a fresh burn mark was on its shoulder. "Truly a marvelous specimen this one is. Strong, durable, and quite resilient to pain." The creature snarled and lunged at the cage and was repulsed by a strange force field. "Not too bright though. And it's always hungry. I'll just have to tell them that it's not up to their standards and dispose of it."

For whatever reason, I couldn't leave. I was compelled to help this pitiful creature. I silently crept up behind the professor and tightly gripped the back of his skull. "Don't move," I said, making my voice as deep as possible. He went stock still. "Who are you and what is that thing?"

"I'm Professor Hojo. That thing is a digital life form. There, I've answered your questions release me."

The creature looked at me questioningly, almost childlike. "How do I open the cage?"

"There's a switch on the console. I'm not telling you which one."

"Fine." I let the back of his head go long enough to ball my fist and bring it down on the top of his head. The fragile old-timer crumbled beneath the blow, unconscious. I rummaged through his pockets and found a key card and looked at the cage. There was a slot for it on one of the bars. I slid it in and I heard the force field's hum die down and then the door opened. 'Switch on the console' my foot! "Can you talk?"

"Are you here to play with me?" It sniffed me for a few moments while I stared in shock. It was a he, and he was talking for one thing. "Are you nicer than Hojomon?"

He was also big. Not big for me, but he was for a normal guy. He stood erect and began sniffing at my chest. The thing was six feet tall and looked pretty heavy. "Hojomon? You mean the guy on the ground?" He nodded. "Yeah, I am."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Lycanus."

"Lycanusmon? Are you my friend?" He sniffed me again. "Will you play with me?" he asked again.

"Sure. Let's just get out of here first." I turned around and started to walk out the door when I felt a tug on my shirt. "What is it?"

"Hojomon had a device that he said let me stay here. You need to find it." He suddenly looked scared. "I don't want to disappear."

I placed a reassuring hand on his head and rubbed it. "I won't let that happen." I went back to Hojo's sleeping body and searched it again. Attached to his belt was what looked like a weird clock. It was white with red buttons and a red ring around the face. There was a small red strap that clipped on to my belt so I didn't have to worry about not having pockets. "Is this it?" He nodded eagerly. "What's your name?"

"Hojomon called me Red-23, but my real name is Guilmon." I looked down as Hojo groaned in pain. "Hojomon's waking up," Guilmon said eying him angrily.

I tossed him in the cage and shut the door with the key, and the cage powered on, effectively trapping him inside. "Now it doesn't matter. Let's go." Guilmon now eagerly followed me out, and we slowly retraced my footsteps back to the surface. It was 10:30, and the classes were starting to let out. On the way out, I bumped into Captain Kenpachi.

"Watch where you're going," he snapped. He caught sight of Guilmon hiding behind me and raised an eyebrow. "So you met Hojo?"

"Yes, sir."

"I guess he's dead then." He looked me over then changed his look to disgust. "He's not dead. You're soft."

"How do you know?"

"You don't smell like blood, your clothes and armor are clean, and you have the look of one who has yet to kill their first victim. I don't care if you do have an ancient warrior's body. He may have killed hundreds of thousands of people, but you've yet to take your first life. I can see it in your eyes, in the way you walk and carry yourself. I know fighting and death. You still have the soul of a child." He cast another glance at Guilmon. "I'll go take care of him, but you two get out of here. If you say anything about that place or where you found him, I'll give you a lesson in pain you won't soon forget. You aren't supposed to even be down here."

We edged past him, leaving him to mutter curse under his breath. "For future reference, I found you wandering the castle grounds."

"Why do we have to lie?" Guilmon cocked his head to one side. "Why can't we tell the truth?"

"Because Captain Kenpachi says so."

"Oh. O.K." We continued on our way up, passing a few students here and there. Guilmon didn't give away the secret, although he didn't talk to others very easily. We finally made it back to the main courtyard, and from there we headed to the lunchroom. I sat down with my usual friends, but was a little distant because of today's events. I set Guilmon's tray of food on the floor for him. He ate eagerly, and curled up on the ground next to me, glancing around the lunchroom with undisguised interest. "Is everybody here a Digimon?"

"A what?" I had never heard of a thing like that. "I'm pretty sure they're not. I know I'm not a Digimon. What is that?"

"Creatures like Guilmon," he said matter-of-factly. "Digimon is short for Digital Monster."

"Then, no, nobody here's a Digimon. We're all humans." Ridley chose that time to walk by. "At least we were anyway."

Guilmon seemed satisfied with that answer and continued watching everybody in the room. "What's a 'human'?"

I looked around for a good example. Rildey, Sarah, and I were poor examples now, as were Fox, Sonic and a few others at my table "Uh…" Samus had already left and Michael was in his hybrid form. "Well…" Thankfully, Ichigo sat down next to me. "This is Ichigo, Guilmon. He's a human."

"And you're not?" he asked without looking up at me. A strange white mask with red stripes was slowly taking shape.

"Not anymore. Now I'm an ogre. Japanese style." I stared at the mask as it took over the left half of his face. "You've got something on your face."

"Yeah. It's been coming and going for the last few days now. By the way; what's the difference between a human and a Japanese ogre?"

"'Oni' is the Japanese word for 'demon' or 'ogre', and it was kind of a bad translation. Japanese ogres are kind of like giants were in England. What's your class today?"

"First I had oversized sword training with Cloud, and after lunch I have speed swordsmanship training with Sephiroth."

"I probably should have been in Cloud's class. Instead I was dropped in Ganondorf's hand-to-hand class. They probably put me there before I got my sword."

"Most likely." He looked down at Guilmon. "Where'd you get him?"

"I found him wandering the grounds," I lied. Guilmon was now slightly intrigued with Ichigo, and began sniffing him. "He's pretty shy around people that he doesn't think are friendly."

"I wouldn't doubt it. We got a lot of strange-looking folks around here now."

Around that time I finished eating. "Good luck with Sephiroth's class." I dumped my and Guilmon's trays off and we headed off for my room. Guilmon, of course, began sniffing everything in the place.

"Does somebody else live here?"

"Yeah. Remember that wolf-looking guy at lunch? He's my roommate. He's pretty cool. He looks big and scary, but actually pretty nice"

"We play now?"

"Sure. What do you want to do?"

"Is there a forest?"

"Yes."

"Can we play Hide-And-Seek?"

"Why not? Let's go." We walked through the castle, taking our time since I didn't have to be anywhere until Monday. We didn't try to sneak since the only person in the school who was more noticeable was Ridley. A nine foot, five hundred pound ogre and a six foot, two hundred pound reptile weren't going to be hard to spot. We walked out the main gate, and made our way to the forest. Guilmon wasn't too hard to spot in the forest, being blood red with a liquid paper white belly with four black triangles on his chest.

After about an hour of Hide-And-Seek, I heard a familiar laugh. "You still haven't found me yet."

I looked around, not seeing anybody. "Where are you?" Much to my surprise, my shadow popped up off the ground. "Midna? Aren't you supposed to be helping Link?"

"Not really. I was looking after Yachiru for Kenpahi while he and Link were doing their classes. She drug me out here because she said she needed to do something. It ended up being joining you two." I saw Guilmon's tail sticking out from under the bush he was hiding under. "Besides, she's a lot closer than you think."

"Here I am, Kong!" She said as she popped up on my shoulder from my back.

"Kong?"

Midna shook her shadowy head. "She likes giving people nicknames." She drifted over to sit on my free shoulder. "Mine's 'Impy'," she said with a hint of agitation.

"Lycanusmon, who are they?" Guilmon poked his head out from the bush he was hiding under. "Are they more friends?"

"Kinda," I said. "They're some of the teacher's assistants."

"Kenny wants you to be in his class!" Yachiru exclaimed happily, effectively cutting off introductions. "I've never seen him so eager about something before! He said Ugly was stupid to give you up."

"I take it he want's me there now?"

"Yep! Let's go!" Yachiru sprung from my shoulder and sped off ahead, leading the way to Kenpachi's class.

"C'mon, Guilmon. Looks like I won't have the rest of the day to myself after all."

"Are we going to meet new people?"

"Yeah, we're gonna meet lots of people today." Out of my new body's force of habit, I put the Double Helix on my back, and it stuck. I didn't know how, but it did. Guilmon was at my side by this time. "That's new and useful," I thought out loud.

"C'mon, Kong! You don't want to keep Kenny waiting!"

"I'm coming." Slowly but surely, the four of us wandered our way out of the forest. Yachiru pouted most of it because Midna told me not to listen to her directions. Midna's nickname changed from 'Impy' to 'Meany' thanks to that.

Kenpachi stood waiting for us at the forest's edge. "There you are." He drew his nodachi and rested it on one shoulder while Yachiru scampered up to the other one. "You're just in time for your next class."

"What's that?" I asked hesitantly.

"How to take and deal massive amounts of damage and keep going." He thrust his sword at my left shoulder, aiming for the edge of the breastplate. I drew the Double Helix in a desperate attempt to block.


	5. Chapter 4: A Lot of Stuff All at Once

**Chapter IV**

Drawing the Double Helix in itself was an action that saved me some pain, but catching Kenpahci's nodachi in one of the openings of the Double Helix and pinning it in place made it even better since he couldn't make a second attempt. "Nice reflexes!" The air seemed charged with the tension of our blades. Mine trying to keep his still and his trying to escape mine. There was a smile on his face, almost like he was under the effects of some kind of drug.

'_Great. He's got a combat high after only a few seconds. What's he gonna be like when I actually make him put some effort into this?'_ With the shriek of tearing metal, he pulled his sword free and swung again. The edge of his blade met mine, and I could feel the blow even through my freakish strength and gauntlets. He was still only swinging his sword with one hand. I was screwed if he ever landed a blow with both hands on the hilt. I knocked his hand back and took a swing at his chest, leaving a nice cut all the way across.

His grin widened. "Looks like I can some fun with you." There was a flare of yellow energy from him, then he swung again, twice as hard as before. "You might even be able to get me to go all out eventually." I blocked his blows again and again, each time they got stronger and stronger. Soon, I was able to see a pattern to his attacks, and rather than block, I lunged at his face. The crazy fool actually grabbed my sword with his bare hand to shove it away and likewise lunged at my face. I used this close-quarters moment to pull back my fist and smashed his face in, than kneed him in the gut. I pulled my sword free while he was stunned and smashed the hilt into his temple. He staggered back, half coughing, half laughing. "I can't remember the last time I've fought a person so powerful. Even when you fear for your life, you sword is still sharp. You don't hold back in battle, and you fight like a madman."

Guilmon stood crouched on the edge of the battlefield, growling like an angry wolf. "Even now I've only been fighting with an eighth of my power." He slowly reached up and grabbed his eye patch and tearing it from his face. "You really can take my full strength!" He was surrounded by the same yellow energy as before, but this time it stayed. A crowd of students was gathering, all interested in our fight. For whatever reason, I was caught up in the fight just as much as he was. I quickly found out why he didn't teach math. His was horrible. He wasn't hitting me eight times harder, he was pounding into me with at least ten times the force, and he was driving me back. If I couldn't block the attack, then I would just barely dodge it and he was landing grazing blows every time. Midna was disinterested in leaving. In her shadow form, she had a front row seat and she couldn't be harmed.

I swung and he dodged back and away. I swung again, trying to draw out the same wave of energy that was unleashed in my fight against Kadaj and his brothers. It came, stronger this time, but Kenpachi cut through and dissipated it. He charged forward again, grabbing the bare edge of the Double Helix again, and stabbed at my chest. I couldn't dodge in time and he stabbed me in the chest. I coughed up some blood, and forced the pain away.

With all the strength I could muster, I wrenched Kenpachi's hand away from his sword and forced him back. I pulled the oversized katana out of my chest and held it tight with one hand. I couldn't believe that he had pierced my armor so easily. He smirked, and took a step forward. Guilmon lunged forward and there was a flash of light from the device I had taken from Hojo. When it was gone, Kenpachi was once again holding his sword and using it to hold off the claws of a massive two-story-tall version of Guilmon. After a few moments of struggling, Kenpachi forced whatever Guilmon had turned into back and slashed it across the chest. He roared out in pain and dropped to one knee. I swung the Double Helix again, sending another wave of bluish-white energy at his back. "Don't hurt him," I squeezed out between gurgling breaths. Kenpachi's haori (the white captain's robe) had been torn to shreds, and the rest of his clothes weren't in much better shape. He was badly burned in places, and he used his sword for support. He stood up and turned to face me, and I collapsed.

I woke up the next day in the medical bay with my chest tightly bandaged. Kenpachi was sitting on the bed next to mine, and Guilmon had changed back and was standing next to my bed. When he saw that I was awake, he practically threw himself on me. "Lycanusmon's OK!" My whole body was stiff from the fight yesterday, and it was clear that I wouldn't be able to get into a few fights for the next few days. Guilmon squeezing me to death wasn't helping either.

"Your friend caught me off guard. Pretty impressive for a little guy." Guilmon was instantly on the offensive, growling angrily at Kenpachi. "Shut up and sit down you miserable little lizard. I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to congratulate him on making me go all out in our first sparring match. Nobody's done that in ages." He turned to walk out of the room. "See ya tomorrow."

I was alone with Guilmon in my room wondering just what that guy was. "Guilmon, what did you do yesterday?" He cocked his head, confused. "I mean how did you get all big and huge like that?"

Guilmon suddenly looked proud. "That was Growlmon. Guilmon was able to digivolve to Growlmon to help protect you."

"Digivolve? Is that like evolution?"

"Digivolving is like evolution, but different too. Digimon change temporarily to become more powerful, but when we run out of energy we dedigivolve to a weaker form to save our energy and build it back up."

"Sounds reasonable." It did kinda make sense, but it was still weird. I looked over to the table where my gear was resting. "Do you know if I can leave yet?" I had some ideas, and I couldn't do any of them here.

Guilmon scampered out of the room, literally sniffing out the nearest nurse. A few moments later, he came back. "She said you can go whenever you want as long as you don't overdo it."

"Great." I tossed back the sheets and climbed out of the bed. I put on my clothes, taking care not to disturb the bandages too much. I grabbed the Double Helix and put it in its spot on my back and walked out the door. Right into Tsunade. She stumbled back a bit, and then we both fell over completely when Guilmon slammed into my back. Tsunade had dropped the books she was carrying and all the papers inside of them went scattering across the floor. I rolled Guilmon off of my back and picked myself up off of her and helped her to her feet. "Sorry about that," I said as I helped her pick up her things. "Should've been paying attention to where I was going."

Guilmon crouched beside me like a dog about to be beaten, his wing-like ears drooping to further show his embarrassment. "Yeah, sorry."

Tsunade brushed of the apology. "Don't be stupid. You couldn't have known I was coming around the corner, so stop apologizing." We were both quiet until everything was picked up. "I saw your fight, and the operation afterwards." I cringed inwardly, remembering it all too well. My chest still burned like they had just poured a whole gallon of hydrogen peroxide into the wound. "I'm still surprised that you're alive."

"You're not the only one." I still couldn't believe that I was standing. I handed her the rest of her books and papers when one of the books' titles caught my eye. "Biology books? Are you trying to become a nurse or a doctor?"

"More or less. I have a natural talent for healing people with a special spiritual energy called chakra. My whole family can use it, but mostly for combat. The same goes for Jiraiya and Orochimaru. They can also use chakra to pull off some fantastic combat techniques, but I'm one of the few that can use it to heal people."

"That's pretty cool. I don't think I can do any medical procedures other than amputation," I said tapping the hilt of the Double Helix for emphasis. "I'm better suited for making sure you don't get hurt in the first place."

"And your job makes mine easier. So you protect people rather than heal them, what does it matter so long as you are doing your part to help?" She straitened her stack of books and turned to walk down the hallway. "Before I forget, me and a few friends are getting together to play cards. Care to join in?"

I thought about it for a while, and then shook my head. "I'd love to, but I have tons of homework to do since I missed out on several days of school thanks to PE."

She had a slightly disappointed look on her face which vanished when she shrugged. "I guess it can't be helped." She continued back down the hall. "Take care then."

"Let's go, Guilmon. I have some work to do." I walked through the castle, stopped at Ganondorf's room. "Wait right here. There's something I need to do."

I knocked on the door, half expecting nobody to be home. I received the same 'Enter' command as before, and I had the same '_if you dare_' thought. It was as if his room had been suspended in time since my last visit. The only thing different was that there were eleven new suits of armor. They all had the same black and gold color scheme as Ganondorf, and they all had fullblades and longswords. I was even able to catch sight of chain mail beneath the inch-thick plates of black armor. "Have you thought of my proposal yet?"

I nodded. "Yes I have. And I accept."

"Excellent. I had a feeling you would." He was silent for a moment. "For now, wait for your next orders. There is much planning to be done."

"Yes, sir." I turned to leave, and motioned for Guilmon to follow me. "How good're your senses of smell and hearing?"

Guilmon cocked his head to one side. "Really good. Why?"

"Let me know if we're being followed. I've made a new ally, but I don't think he quite trusts me."

"Is an ally a friend?"

"Not exactly. An ally is somebody who agrees to help when you ask, but that doesn't mean the two of you are friends." I noticed that Guilmon had a habit of asking a few questions and then getting quiet while he thought about it. After a while, we made our way to Cloud's classroom.

As I started to knock on the door, Guilmon tugged at my arm. "There's no one here."

"How do you know that?"

"Guilmon doesn't smell anybody."

I couldn't argue with him there. If his senses were as good as he said they were, then there was no reason to doubt him. "Let's go back to my room." We made it back to my room without further incident, until I opened the door. Inside, I saw Jiraiya trying to scurry under my bed. "Jiriaya, what are you doing?"

"Hiding from Tsunade," he whispered. "Keep quiet." I heard somebody pounding on the door. "Don't answer."

I ignored him and opened it anyway. Tsunade was standing there, cracking her knuckles. "Can I help you?" I asked casually.

"Where is he?" she asked calmly.

"Where's-OOF!" My sentence was cut off by screaming pain in my stomach. She punched me.

"Where is he?" she asked again.

I was doubled over from the punch, gasping for air. She really was as strong as I was. "Under the bed," I gasped.

"Traitor!" Jiraiya shouted, giving away his position. She walked into my room and lifted the bed up to find a cowering Jiraiya curled up into a little ball. The last I saw of them was her dragging him out of my room. I let myself fall onto my side, relieved that at least the stone floor was cold.

Guilmon came out of the room and stared at me on the floor. "What happened?"

I took a few deep gulps of air, trying to catch my breath. "I think Jiraiya just screwed up." The rest of the day was far less eventful and was spent with me doing homework and Guilmon exploring Michael and my side of the room. We went to dinner and came straight back to the room, continuing with our separate tasks. Every once in a while, I couldn't help but think that as much as he may have looked like a dragon, he was definitely more like a puppy than anything.

I finished my homework around 9:30, and we turned in early. Guilmon curled up on the couch in the living room, and went right to sleep. I went to my room, got undressed, and went to bed. A short while after that, I was woken up. "I trust you aren't in too much pain?" Vincent asked.

"I've been better. I've been worse too, but considering what's happened recently, I can't complain too much."

"That's good. Have you thought about Cloud's offer?"

"I have."

"And?"

"I'm in."


	6. Chapter 5: Alliances Forged

**Chapter V**

Vincent had a bit of a satisfied smile. "That's good, too." He walked over to the stand my armor was on. "Get dressed. There's a meeting tonight at midnight." I sighed. Another late night. I got dressed quickly and met him by the window. "Now jump," he said. I leapt from the window thinking he was crazy, but I landed on the ground with a loud thud that registered as pain in my feet and legs. He, on the other hand, landed on the balls of his feet, rolled forward and was just fine.

We continued on to the meeting place, and ducked inside. We were the last to show up. Already inside were Cloud, Link, Altair, Snake, Sonic, Kenpachi, Jiraiya and Tsunade. Jiraiya was in a full body cast and sitting in a wheel chair, and Tsunade was leaning against the wall behind him. "Now that everybody is here, let's begin," Cloud said once Vincent and I had taken our places. "This is more of an introductory meeting, seeing as how most of you are new students here."

Altair was silent, studying the group one by one. He was wearing a white hoodie with the hood brought up to block the view of the upper-half his face. His weapons, which were many, were all carefully concealed on his body. There were a few throwing daggers hiding in his boots, and there was an extendable dagger hiding in the gauntlet on his left hand. He had a close-quarters dagger on one hip, and his scimitar was strapped to his back. Snake was wearing some kind of stealth suit with some web gear, a bandana and a hi-tech eye patch. He had a few guns and a combat knife as well.

One at a time, we all told the group our names, our likes and dislikes, our hobbies, and our dreams for the future. We went around the group, once again with me going last. There wasn't much to tell that wasn't already known by at least a few people. Tsunade had to speak for Jiraiya, and Altair and Snake didn't tell us much about themselves. Kenpachi and Cloud's pasts were blanks to them; Kenpachi because he didn't care to remember, and Cloud because he had somebody else's memories. There wasn't much to tell about Link, and Jiraiya and Tsunade had grown up together.

Once introductions were out of the way, we told our various reasons for being there; mine being the same as most of the others: It was the right thing to do. We split up, into groups of two, I was paired up with Vincent, and we all got to learn about our partners better. After that, we broke off the meeting, saying that we would finish at the next meeting.

I hung out a little later than the others, wanting to ensure that nobody was watching me. I started to leave, when I heard a rustling in the bushes. "Now where might you be going, Mate?" I spun around to see a man that stood about six foot even, with blackish-brown hair and brown eyes. He wore old brown pants and thick brown boots like mine. He wore a blue vest over his white long sleeve shirt and a red sash as a belt. He had a worn-out, tri-corner hat and his hair was a mesh of long, short, braided and dreadlocked strands with bits of this and that woven in. He had a bit of a moustache and his beard was braided into two more dreadlocks. His weapons were an old flintlock pistol and a cutlass, and a compass dangled from one hip. "Name's Sparrow by the way. Jack Sparrow. I've got a bit of business with you."

"And I've got a bit business with my bed. What do you want?"

"Straight and to the point! I like that in a man. I've got a proposition for you. It seems you're playing both sides of the fence at the behest of one of your compatriots, and it would be beneficial to me and my compatriots if you were to become our compatriot as well."

"Meaning?" Jack looked like a pirate, but his manner of speaking suggested that he was a used car salesman.

"We want you to join our group as well. It would seem that you're a bit of a wild card and that's something we could use. Besides, we have resources that you'll need if you're going to keep this a secret. Don't worry, we won't tell, seeing as how a few people you know are on the 'team' as it were. We're what you would call a mercenary group. You would of course be fighting for both sides, ruining whatever side you wanted, but you would also be feeding us information that would help us to decide on whom to help out in the fight."

"What makes you think it will come to fighting?" I asked evasively.

"Matey, do you honestly think that the clichéd fight of 'Good versus Evil' can be postponed indefinitely? Good guys will always fight bad guys, and the neutral will always be caught in the middle. Why not make sure we go down taking a few from both sides as well?"

I thought about it for a moment. What he said made sense. I was in the middle, and I was a front-liner for both sides. It only made sense that I ensured that I survived the oncoming storm. The main thing about Cloud and Link's team was that everybody was a front-liner. But in this newest faction, I would be covert. "When's the next meeting?"

"I'm happy you asked that." He walked into the decrepit building that I had just left. "We're meeting right here, Mate. Tonight, in fact." He took a seat in a chair and propped his feet up on a nearby table. I sat back down in the seat I had taken for the previous meeting and waited for the rest of the group to show up. After a while Samus showed up, and a few minutes after that Fox joined us.

Another kid named O'Donnell dropped in about fifteen minutes after Fox, and took a spot against one wall. He was wearing a sort of body armor, and he had a wolf-like appearance. A strange gun was in a holster at his hip. "Is he in?" he asked. He was appropriately nicknamed 'Wolf' around the school.

"Possibly. I think he may just need a bit of convincing from people he knows." He glanced over to Samus and Fox.

I turned my head to the door at the sound of heavy footsteps walking in. I hadn't seen him before, but I remembered his name; Hector Barbossa. I had heard him described to me before by Michael, but I didn't have any classes with him. He wore ragged clothes that looked like they were quite nice at one time, and a heavy, dark green trench coat. His boots were much bulkier and heavier than Jack's, and he wore a large flamboyant hat with a huge blue feather. He, like Jack, had a cutlass and a flintlock pistol for weapons, but he also had a knife and a few old-style grenades. "That may be true, Jack, but you shouldn't have brought him here until you were sure," he chastised. He spoke in a thick accent, sounding like a mixture of Australian and Scottish.

"Don't worry. We can trust him," Samus said, vouching for me. "He's more honorable than some people here." She cast a harsh glare at Jack, plainly indicating who she meant.

Jack started to object, but I cut him off. "You don't have to worry. I'm in."

"See there? What'd I tell you?" Jack asked enthusiastically.

"You've said a lot of things, most I haven't paid any attention to," O'Donnell said agitatedly.

"Now that was uncalled for, Mate." Jack plopped his feet on the ground and sat up straight. "I've told you the truth plenty of times."

"And you're dishonest," Samus tossed out.

"Exactly!" Jack said enthusiastically. "You can always trust me to be dishonest. It's the honest ones you have to look out for because you never know when they'll do something really stupid." He glared daggers at Hector, daring him to object.

He did. "I wouldn't be so quick to impugn the honor of others, Jack," he said drawing his cutlass. "If I be rememberin' correctly, some of your scars come from that."

Jack had his cutlass out in a flash and swung at Hector. They clashed their blades a bit and then both made a lunge. I made a lunge with my own Double Helix and twisted it in midair when their swords had gone through the hole, then swung it into the ground, effectively locking all three blades in place. "We're all friends here," I said evenly. "And infighting isn't the best way to convince me to join."

I heard a low whistle from Wolf. "Looks like we'll have some fun with this one."

Jack and Hector glared for a moment longer then waited for me to release their swords. I slowly lifted the Double Helix and watched as they stared each other down as they sheathed their swords.

"I don't think we called Lycanus here to watch how well we fight ourselves," Samus said as she took off her helmet.

"You're absolutely right," said Jack. I noticed he had a habit of gesturing wildly while he spoke. "He's here because everybody thinks he's trustworthy, nobody thinks we're trustworthy, and he's the one everybody wants on their side." He turned to face me and I caught sight of a strange glimmer in his eye, like everything was going his way. "So, Mr. Wolfbane, are you in?"

I thought a moment, and smirked. If I had pupils, I probably would have had the same glint in them as Jack. "Sure, I'm game."

The device connected to Guilmon that hung from my belt started beeping. Shortly after that, everybody turned to face the door behind Michael as three claws dug their way through the soft wood. Everybody else in the room readied for a quick slaughter, but I would recognize those claws anywhere. I pushed my way to the front of the room and opened the door, causing Guilmon to fall flat on his face when his second swing missed. Behind Guilmon was a guy I had only seen a few times. He had a green and black striped bucket hat that sat on top of messy sand-colored hair. The rest of his clothes were similarly colored, and he was dressed in the traditional Japanese style; right down to the wooden sandals. He had a simple cane in his left hand and a collapsible paper fan in his right. The shadow from his hat prevented me from seeing his eyes.

"You're late," said Wolf irritably.

I thought hard for a moment, trying to remember his name. All that came to mind was the nickname that had been floating around the school. "Hat-and-Clogs? What're you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just on my way here when I spotted your strange friend." By this time, Guilmon was on his feet, looking at those gathered curiously. "Quite the nose he's got. He followed your scent all the way here." The way he talked made following this puppy-like Digimon around seem like the most logical thing in the world. Personal experience told me otherwise. "Is it time?"

"Yes." Samus had been slowly taking on a no-nonsense attitude and was becoming more gruff everyday. "He's in."

"I told you he would be, Wolf." He snapped the paper fan shut and let the cane rest against his shoulder. "You should have had more faith in Mr. Wolfbane."

Wolf growled in annoyance. "Don't push your luck, Kisuke." Now I had a real name to tie to Hat-and-Clogs.

Somehow, while I had taken a brief glance at Wolf, Kisuke had ditched the fan and cane and pulled out a sword before I looked back. "You have much strength as a warrior, Lycanus," Kisuke said. "But you have too many weaknesses. Before we send you out, we are going to eliminate them." He held out his sword; a simple katana with a strange hilt. "This is Benihime. Its name is Japanese for 'Blood Princess'. It is a rare type of sword that few possess. Currently, there are only three known in existence. Ichigo has the second, and Zaraki has the last. They are called zanpakuto, and they possess the ability to get stronger with their master. Your's however, while it has similar properties to a zanpakuto, is not one."

"Then what is it?" Guilmon asked the question before I could. "If it looks like one and acts like one, but isn't one, then what is it?" He beat me to that one too.

"I don't know, but right now we have some training to do."

Guilmon cocked his head to one side, confused. "Training? Like what Lycanus did with Captain Zaraki?"

A little, only you'll be helping this time. You're going to learn how to fight alongside Lycanus."


End file.
